08 August 2017

I Became an Islander on the City Island Veur-Lent

Since the end of 2016 I became an islander. My secondary residence is located on the City Island Veur-Lent. Despite what Donald Trump is saying, the climate in the world is constantly changing. "As a result of this [climate change] the rivers in the Netherlands have increasingly larger amounts of water to transport. In order to prevent flooding in the near future, the Dutch government is changing the course of more than 30 rivers throughout the country. Room for the river Waal Nijmegen is one of these measures. The river Waal not only has a sharpe bend near Nijmegen, it also forms a bottleneck. In the years 1993 and 1995 this led to high water and floods. To prevent this from happening again and in order to protect the inhabitants of the city against the water, we have to action. In the case of Nijmegen, this involves moving the Waal dike in Lent and constructing an ancillary channel in the flood plains. This will create an island in the Waal and a unique urban river park with lots of possibilities for recreation, culture, water and nature. The solution is far-reaching, yet sustainable and safe."

The job is done! On 06.08.2017, a sunny Sunday, I took the opportunity to make a walk strictly along the coast of the brand new island and by doing so to measure its surface area by a GPS device. With 148,000 acres or 600,000 square meters (60 ha) it's considerably larger than the Vatican City State (44 ha). Hey, City of Nijmegen, what's the number of inhabitants in order to determine the population density on "my" island?